Obama Assembles US’s ‘Largest Law Firm’ to Monitor Election
Barack Obama and John McCain have a litigation game plan to accompany their election strategy. Both candidates have armies of volunteers to ring doorbells and get voters to the polls. They are also forming squadrons of lawyers who are filing challenges and preparing in case Election Day doesn’t settle the contest for the White House. Legal battles unfolding in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin provide fresh evidence of the potential fights to come over ballot access in an election marked by unprecedented spending to increase the number of voters in strategically important states.

The millions of dollars that have been poured into registration drives have yielded millions of new voters across the country. Those same efforts have now generated heated battles in both parties with cries of voter fraud and intimidation that may threaten the integrity of the election. (Continue Reading…)

Don Cornelius of ‘Soul Train’ arrested in LA
Don Cornelius, the former host of the television show “Soul Train,” was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, police said Saturday. Police were called to his Hollywood Hills home late Friday after someone reported a domestic dispute, Officer Sam Park said. The 72-year-old producer was taken to jail, where he was booked for investigation of felony domestic violence, Park said. He was released on $50,000 bail and ordered to appear in court next month. Park said he did not know whom Cornelius was suspected of assaulting. A call to Cornelius’ production office was not immediately returned. (Continue Reading…)

Black Voters Feeling a Mix of ‘Anticipation, Hope, Pride — and Fear’
Tonya Jones doesn’t want to imagine what it would feel like to have a black president in the White House. “I want to feel that euphoria, but I can’t,” said Jones, an African American hairstylist who was hanging out in front of her shop here on a slow afternoon. “Because I don’t want to put myself way up here” — with this she raised her hand over her head — “only to fall.” She let her hand plunge downward like a falling elevator. (Continue Reading…)